Kora
Kora is Willow's best friend and she can transform into a Gargoyle as well and can manipulate the elements. Appearance Kora for the first three seasons is depicted with long hair that is usually kept in a ponytail, though she has it down on several occasions such as when attending festivities, while entering the Avatar State by the Red Lotus and during her battle with Zaheer shortly afterward. Kora is so rarely seen with her hair down. She maintains the hairstyle for the next three years as she recovers until shortly after regaining her mobility, at which point she cuts it. Kora's initial clothing in the fourth season is purposely designed to mirror that of her Water Tribe attire in the previous seasons, consisting of a sleeveless shirt and baggy pants. Kora gains another outfit midway through the fourth season. This outfit's boots are based on an existing pair of faux suede flat winter buckle boots. Personality On the surface, Kora is fierce, independent, and pugnacious, but beneath her tough exterior, she possesses a strong loyalty toward her friends and duty as the Avatar. She also has an admirable compassion and devotion, demonstrated when she expresses love toward things such as her family and friends. Her offensive battle style means that she is always quick to initiate or rise to a challenge, and is similarly quick witted and impulsive, especially in heated situations. As an "Avatar-in-training", she lacked perception toward the damage her bending is capable of, and her rash decisions often resulted in her accidentally insulting others. True to Kora's character, Lin once stated to Tenzin that it was "hard to believe his sweet-tempered father was reincarnated into that girl". Her personality is, in many ways, the opposite of her past life's; Aang was a peaceful, diffident, nomadic airbender, whereas Kora is tough, impatient, headstrong, sarcastic, and assertive. She has a habit of getting close-up to people when confronting them, sometimes grabbing them by the chin when trying to get her point across. Additionally, while Aang was initially reluctant to be the Avatar, to the point where he ran away to prevent his responsibilities as the Avatar from disturbing his life, Korra fully embraced her position as the Avatar from a young age, reveling in its power. However, similar to Aang, she also has a good sense of humor and enthusiasm, and a vulnerable teenage charm. Being initially unable to connect with her spiritual side proved to be a stumbling block in Kora's training, and she admitted that her personality is the opposite of the typical airbender's; as Tenzin noted, Avatars tend to struggle with the bending art most opposite their personality. Due to the lack of a spiritual centre in her life, Kora is impulsive and therefore has a hard time hiding her true feelings. Due to her concentration on the physical side of bending, Kora was initially quite worried when she saw "the revelation" of Amon's true abilities during his demonstration,14 a fear which expressed itself in Amon's words in the nightmare she had soon afterward, "Once I take your bending away, you will be nothing." This and her later encounter with Amon revealed this fear. She tried repressing these fears for the good of Republic City when she joined Tarrlok's task force, but had trouble staying her usual upbeat self and became rather reclusive, and eventually made the rash decision to call Amon out in a one-on-one duel. This indicates that she is ruled by her emotions even when she tries to pretend they do not exist, leaving her vulnerable to Amon as shown by the results of the said encounter. Like her immediate predecessor Aang, Kora places a high priority on her position as the Avatar, despite their different approaches. Although at first Aang was uncomfortable with having to use outright violence to bring balance to the world, he eventually developed an unrelenting determination toward following his age-old destiny. Kora, on the other hand, takes a non-conformist stance over her Avatar training. For instance, after trying out pro-bending, she stated to Tenzin that the reason why she had been unable to airbend was because the Avatar no longer needed it and was instead meant to focus on modern styles of fighting. Tenzin quickly stamped her proposal out as preposterous, reminding her that the Avatar is destined to master all four elements at all costs. Upon learning that she was kept locked away from the world by Tonraq and Tenzin, Kora became quite irate toward them, being hostile whenever they tried to speak with her. Kora expressed more hostility for her father after learning about his past in the Northern Water Tribe. However, when she found out that Tonraq was not involved with an effort to overthrow Unalaq, she forgave him quickly. Kora has no qualms intimidating or threatening whomever has offended her friends and loved ones, as exemplified when she struck fear to the Equalist protester to find out Bolin's whereabouts, and when she threatened to feed Judge Hotah to Naga if he would not comply to her wishes. After learning the truth about her father's banishment, Korra developed an animosity toward Unalaq, which caused her to dismiss him as her spiritual mentor. Once she realized that Unalaq had been using her to try to free Vaatu from his prison in the Spirit World, her animosity toward her uncle increased in intensity. After learning the origins of the Avatar Spirit through the life of Avatar Wan and regaining her memories, Korra became more patient and humble, as exemplified when she thanked Tenzin for his undying loyalty to her. After the Harmonic Convergence, Kora demonstrated a more patient demeanour yet still retained her impulsive nature. This is evident when she tried to physically force Ryu, an airbending slacker, into becoming a part of the new Air Nation against his will, with Mako and Bolin eventually forced to drag Kora out to stop the mayhem. Kora's temper and rage, once provoked, could border on murderous, as during her captivity by the Red Lotus and still believing that Zaheer had killed her father, Kora declared that she would be free and none of the Red Lotus would survive. She fully intended to kill Zaheer, showing her righteous fury, but with a dark and wrathful side to her as well. After barely surviving her encounter with Zaheer and having the poison removed from her system, Kora was placed in a wheelchair during her recovery, which left her traumatized and in a state of depression. She still showed compassion and pride for her friends throughout, however, and was present when Jinora received her airbending tattoos, crying during the ceremony. In the following years, she struggled to recover, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and being haunted by flashbacks to her encounter with Zaheer. Although she recovered physically, her emotional struggle led her to embark on a journey to reconnect with her Avatar Spirit while hiding her identity as the Avatar, going against her tendency of being prideful about it. After an elderly Toph helped her to face and overcome her fears of her past enemies, Kora bent the residual mercury out of her body and regained the ability to enter the Avatar State, though it was not until she faced Zaheer in person and was helped by him to accept what had happened to her and release her fear of "what might have been" that she was able to fully reconnect with Raava. Powers, Skills and Abilities As the Avatar, Kora has the unique ability to use all four elements, and has the potential to become the most powerful bender in the world. Furthermore, since she was a child, Kora has always had a remarkable affinity for the physical aspect of bending. She also quickly took to the three different styles of pro-bending with simple instructions from her teammates, greatly impressing them after only a week of training to ultimately become a highly capable member of the Fire Ferrets. While in the Avatar State, Kora is able to use an air spout to raise herself into the air while unleashing all four elements in rapid succession. Later after more training, Kora becomes able to easily enter this form with complete control, even during intense competition. Kora's waterbending abilities manifested at a young age, before she had even been recognized as the Avatar by the Order of the White Lotus. Subsequently trained formally in the art for over a decade by Katara, Kora has demonstrated a high level of skill in this art in addition to its various techniques. She is capable of creating large walls of ice, powerful water whips, and water waves strong enough to push back and, when frozen, contain an enormous mecha suit standing over twenty-five stories tall. She can also launch herself high into the air and maintain the height on a gigantic waterspout easily, fight off several aerial attacks with various water attacks, and propel herself plus another person through the water at high-speeds to avoid attacks. She used her waterbending abilities to procure herself a spot on the Fire Ferrets pro-bending team, referring to herself as a "top-notch waterbender". While she was taught Northern and Southern style waterbending, which both employ fluid motions, Kora has quickly adapted to Republic City's more aggressive, straightforward waterbending style. Kora is also able to draw a sufficient supply of water from the air for her bending. Kora also has sufficient knowledge of bloodbending to fully understand the nature of its application, despite having never used the outlawed skill. During her waterbending training, Kora was also taught the advanced skill of healing. As Katara was well-regarded as the best healer in the world, Kora herself became highly skilled in the art, something she takes pride in. By using a small supply of water as a catalyst on the targeted area, Kora is able to drastically increase the healing rate of injuries. Kora's skills were great enough to quickly soothe away the pain on Bolin's injured arm, and mitigate the severe burns on General Iroh's arm, leaving no trace of scars. Despite her short time studying under her uncle Unalaq, a spiritual expert, Kora managed to learn his technique of spiritbending, which involves changing negative energy into positive energy in spirits in order to pacify them. While she only managed to understand the mechanics in the beginning, Kora eventually successfully performed the technique and was able to calm countless small spirits at once. She was even able to use the technique to destroy Unalaq and purify the dark spirit Vaatu when the two were fused together as the Dark Avatar. Following her uncle's death, Kora became the only known living practitioner of the skill. Kora's earthbending abilities also manifested at an early age. Spending many years of intense training, Kora has gained great mastery in this art. While regularly using traditional earthbending tactics in combat, she quickly learned the basics of pro-style earthbending from Bolin, able to attack more akin to a firebender with light footwork and quick jabs. Her prowess is great enough to easily take control of earth targets levitated by other earthbenders. She has demonstrated her adept skill and ability in earthbending on several occasions, notably launching a member of the Triple Threat Triad several stories into the air. Kora's earthbending is also able to affect a considerable radius, upturning and demolishing everything in the area. As seen when pairing with Bolin, Kora is able to effectively synchronize her earthbending with another person to increase the versatility and control of her target. During Kora's stay at Zaofu, Suyin Beifong offered to train her in the art of metalbending. Suyin started Kora on a meteorite as a beginner and she quickly adjusted to the metallic body and learned to mold it into various forms. As such, she became the first Avatar to learn metalbending. Kora quickly became more versed in metalbending, being able to skilfully wield metal cables with great dexterity and fluidity in her movements and ensnare her opponents, even more experienced metalbenders, with the said cables. She can also tear through a large, thick metal wall obstructing her path, albeit with some difficulty as she is still somewhat new to this skill. Kora's control eventually became of such a level that she was able to remove residual traces of mercury out of her own body and could easily pry open the roof of vehicles. As with earth and water, fire also manifested at a young age, and it became the element Kora most prominently utilizes. Due to the fact that she relies on offensive maneuvers when under pressure, Kora uses fire more than any other element. Her firebending training was finished when she passed the test impressively at the age of seventeen, having learned various advanced techniques such as the breath of fire. Against other firebenders, she can easily deflect and disperse the enemies' attack. Her control is so fine, she is able to produce a small yet intense flame at her fingers that she can maintain to melt through metal chains. She can likewise produce daggers in each hand for close-range combat. She can propel herself through the air with firebending in short bursts, and use these bursts to run along a wall. Contrary to the usual difficulty an Avatar has with learning the opposite of his/her native element, firebending has become second nature to her. Kora tends to utilize firebending before any other element when provoked, frustrated, or attempting to assert dominance, such as when she falls back on firebending a newspaper cut out of Lin after failing to do so with airbending. Tenzin attributed this unusual combination to her innate personality being quite fit for the art thanks to her natural assertiveness and fiery spirit. Unlike the prior three elements, airbending did not come easily to Kora. Tenzin explained that it was due to its innate nature of being the most opposite to her personality. While initially having difficulty with airbending's fighting style and battle tactics, during her first pro-bending match, she was able to employ basic airbending movements to dodge the opposing team's assault and ultimately tire them out to win the match for her team. As her training has progressed, her understanding of its moveset greatly improved, and she was able to quickly and gracefully progress through the gates and ultimately learned all of its physical maneuvers; she later applied these tactics against the Lieutenant, effectively dodging all his attacks. After Amon severed Kora's connection to her first three elements, Kora's emotional build up allowed her to fully connect with her spiritual side to utilize airbending. Despite only knowing the theory and practice of its forms, Kora has shown considerable skill and power in airbending: being able to create air blasts from punching and kicking movements, which were strong enough to send Amon flying several yards through a window. Although she has shown great power in her offensive use of airbending, her style of airbending varies dramatically from other airbenders, employing straightforward offensive movements similar to firebending while lacking the more characteristic circular and spiralling movements. Six months after the Anti-bending Revolution, she has nearly mastered the art, employing traditional maneuvers, such as gliding, and is able to proficiently use several advanced skills, such as the air scooter. After learning from Jinora, Kora became able to separate her spirit in astral form and travel to the Spirit World through meditation. Ultimately, air has become Kora's second most used element and she is confident enough in her prowess to at least teach the basics to other airbenders. Upon connecting with her past lives for the first time, Avatar Aang restored Kora's bending abilities and bestowed her with the knowledge of energybending. Although never having used it herself before, she was able to freely restore a person's bending, as she did so with Lin Beifong's earthbending. Following the Anti-bending Revolution, Kora extensively used energybending to restore the bending of those benders whom Amon victimized with his bending severing bloodbending technique, except for a few who used their bending for crime, such as Shady Shin. Kora is also capable of using energybending to connect with her own inner spirit, giving her access to the cosmic energy of the universe, creating a giant astral projection of herself. In this form, she can unleash energy blasts from her chest that can overpower the Dark Avatar's in a direct clash. Although disconnected from her physical body, Kora remained capable of waterbending. After Raava made her aware that when she was in the Spirit World, she was connected to all the spiritual energy, Kora realized that she was capable of bending that energy, with or without her physical body. As such, she was able to release trapped souls from a vegetative pod after she had meditated into the Spirit World and divert a beam powered by spirit energy in the physical world. In addition to bending, Kora also has considerable physical prowess. Her impressive raw strength allows her to easily lift Tenzin and his children at the same time, or a grown man with one arm. Likewise, she can easily leap across long distances and over high obstacles from a stationary position, as well as effectively traverse various terrains and vertical surfaces with great speed to hoist herself easily up and off rooftops. She can easily throw a much larger and heavier opponent against a set of pipes with enough force to break them and can shatter large chunks of ice launched at her with a single punch each. She is also capable of swimming across large bodies of water. Kora is also quite fast and agile with sharp reflexes, able to easily dodge a much larger opponent's assault in a narrow area or a metalbender's launched cable from close-range. Her dexterity and balance are also considerably high, allowing her to skilfully dodge a large barrage of projectiles nearly unscathed, further aiding her in battle. She has impressive acrobatic skills akin to parkour and free-running; she can slide across surfaces with great control, perform mid-air flips and twirls, run up and across walls. She is also quite flexible, able to bend and twist effectively enough to attack from various angles or squeeze through most spaces. Kora can also be quite precise in her attacks, detaining several skilled Southern waterbenders without inflicting any major injuries. Kora is also a highly proficient unarmed fighter, able to knock out opponents with a single kick, simultaneously dodge an attack while sweep-kicking the enemy's legs. Even against an expert weapons-wielder like the Lieutenant, Kora skilfully parried and countered his close-range assault. Furthermore, with a combination of bending attacks, she was able to create openings and land powerful physical blows, ultimately defeating him. Even without her bending, she was able to defeat several chi blockers before being rescued by Naga. Kora also has keen instincts under pressure, demonstrating capable tactical and escape skills, such as using her armband as an insulator against the Lieutenant's electrical assault, and faking unconsciousness in order to catch the Equalists by surprise. Her resilience is also considerably high as she is one of few who cancelled and broke free from a bloodbending grip, albeit with some difficulty. Kora is also an eloquent public speaker. She was initially nervous when she had to speak in her first press conference in Republic City. During the gala, Kora's brashness got the best of her after being pitted against a group of reporters, haphazardly giving empty threats to Amon to cover up her fear of him. Over time, Kora became more confident and composed when it was required of her to speak publicly, considering her words before saying them. This was exemplified when she declared the independence of the Southern Water Tribe and her decision to keep the spirit portals open. Having lived in the South Pole all her life and with Naga as her main means of transportation, Kora never learned how to drive prior to her arrival in Republic City. She gradually learned to do so under Willow's tutelage, though she still struggles between the clutch and the brake. Kora is also capable of piloting a speedboat. As the Avatar, Kora also has the capacity to act as a bridge between mortal world and the Spirit World, the plane of existence where the universe's disembodied spirits dwell. Despite this, Kora had always struggled with the spiritual aspects of being the Avatar, initially being unable to connect with her past lives or enter the Spirit World on her own. As her training under Tenzin progressed, she had slowly begun to connect with her spiritual side, seeing visions of her past life as Aang. Later, after her encounter with Amon, all of her active bending abilities were taken away, but this allowed her to finally break free from her airbending block and defeat Amon. Upon sinking into despair after Katara was unable to restore her lost bending, Kora was finally able to connect with her past lives, which restored all her bending abilities, as well as passing on to her the ability to energybend. With her newfound spirituality, she can enter and leave the Avatar State at will. After being attacked by a dark spirit, Kora was forced to undertake a spiritual journey to rediscover herself. She ultimately gained a deeper connection with the Avatar Spirit and her past lives, all the way to the original Avatar, Wan. With this strengthened connection, Kora is able to purify dark spirits by balancing the energy within them, as well as access various memories from her past lives, including Avatar Aang's memory of Iroh and Toph, and Avatar Wan's memory of his personal teapot. Following the events of the Harmonic Convergence in 171 AG, Kora lost her connection to her past lives by being temporarily separated from Raava, who was destroyed. Due to some residual traces of mercury in her body after her battle with Zaheer, Kora lost the ability to contact Raava and was unable to enter the Avatar State for three years. However, after she bent the remaining mercury out of herself, restoring her power to enter the Avatar State, though it was only after facing Zaheer and releasing her fear of him and the near death experience she suffered that she was able to contact Raava again. She also learned to connect to people's energy via spirit vines. Family * Mother * Tonraq (Father) * Unalaq (Uncle) * Two Cousins Romances As the Avatar she can have many romances like Willow does, as she must have: One Human, at least One Gargoyle from different clans and one member of New Olympus. * Jason Canmore (Human, Boyfriend) * Broadway (Gargoyle, Manhatten Clan, Husband) * Unnamed Gargoyle (Gargoyle, Avalon Clan, Boyfriend) * Leo (Gargoyle, London Clan, Boyfriend) * Raven (Gargoyle, Indian Clan, Boyfriend) * Jade (Gargoyle, Mayan Clan, Boyfriend) * Yama (Gargoyle, Ishimura Clan, Boyfriend) * Fang (Gargoyle/Former Human, Labyrinth Clan (Formerly), Boyfriend) * Hollywood (Gargoyle, Clone Clan, Boyfriend) * Kiron (New Olympus, Boyfriend) Voice Actress Janet Maureen Varney. Category:Characters Category:Alive Category:Female Category:Gargoyles Category:Girlfriends Category:Wives Category:Elemental Masters Category:Protagonists Category:Allies Category:Heroines